RE: Free Form RPG Opinions Wanted

[Buck Calabro <Buck.Calabro@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe said:

>Why can't there be a version of CHAIN (perhaps with an 
>extender, such as CHAIN(x) for "extended") that fits 
>into the extended C-spec syntax?  

Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe.  That's meant to be a Friday joke, and not just
flip.  If I wanted the new CHAIN syntax I'd use /free.  Could the compiler
team have stuffed another syntax in columnar?  Hey, they're programmers!
They can do whatever the budget (time and money) allow.  So I guess it boils
down to a business decision: do we give 5 new /free things, 5 new columnar
things or...?

>So, I propose an (x) extender for all supported opcodes (such as CHAIN)
>which would make the extended factor two have the same syntax as "the 
>rest of the line" in free format.

Fill out those DCRs and tell IBM management how important this is to you!  I
don't personally share your opinion because I'm comfortable enough with the
existing situation.  But if you started a campaign to get a thousand
developers to send in a DCR, and IBM management decided to implement the
extended/free syntax I'll be the first one to send you a congratulatory note
- and you know I mean that!
  --buck